Even after a delay of almost a year, Think and Learn, the parent firm of Byju’s, has managed to announce only its standalone numbers for FY22. The results, made public on Saturday, do not include Aakash Educational Services, WhitehatJr and other acquisitions. Byju’s said it plans to file the consolidated numbers with the ministry of corporate affairs in the next three weeks.
On a standalone basis, Byju’s has narrowed its Ebitda-based loss to Rs 2,253 crore from Rs 2,406 crore in the previous financial year. Revenue increased 2.3 times to Rs 3,569 crore. Excluding acquisitions, the same had stood at Rs 1,552 crore in FY21. Margin for FY22 was a negative 63% compared to a negative 155% in the previous fiscal.
In FY21, Byju’s consolidated net loss had shot up to Rs 4,588 crore from Rs 231.69 crore in FY20. Total revenues during that year saw a marginal growth of 3.32% to Rs 2,428.39 crore.
The FY21 financials were delayed by almost 18 months beyond the prescribed timeline by the ministry of corporate affairs.
The announcement comes days after Nitin Golani, president of finance at Byju’s, was elevated to the India CFO role, after Ajay Goel stepped down within six months of joining the company.
“I am also humbled by the lessons learnt in the post-pandemic world of readjustments. Byju’s will continue on the path of sustainable and profitable growth in the coming years,” founder and group CEO Byju Raveendran said in a statement.
The company said the audit report submitted by its statutory auditors BDO is clean and unqualified. BDO was appointed after its long-standing auditor, Deloitte, resigned in June this year, cutting short its term that was initially slated till 2025.
Deloitte had then cited the “long delayed” FY22 results and a lack of “any communications on the resolution of the audit report modifications” from the board which had rendered it “unable to commence the audit” on time, as the reason for resigning.
The compounded delays and fallout first began when Deloitte had declined to sign off on the company’s FY21 results, which led to an over 18-month delay in releasing the results.
To make things worse, earlier this year, three board members of Byju’s board—Peak XV Partners’ (earlier Sequoia Capital India) GV Ravishankar, Prosus’ Russell Dreisenstock and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Vivian Wu—also resigned citing irregularities.
The company had in September 2022 projected its gross revenue to grow to Rs 10,000 crore in FY22, at a time when it was still flying high from the after effects of the pandemic-induced booster in edtech. However, the company seems likely to have missed that mark by two-thirds at least.
Yet, Byju Raveendran maintains that the company is on course to achieve profitability by this fiscal, a goal that seems over-ambitious at the moment.
The company, which is grappling with multiple legal and financial issues, has also come under the scanner of Enforcement Directorate (ED), and the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
Meanwhile, it has been scampering to repay a $1.2-billion term loan B with international creditors, which it had initially defaulted on, and then promised to repay in full within six months, and an initial payment of $300 million by December. It plans to acquire the funds required by selling one or two of its key assets, including upskilling platform Great Learning and US-based book reading platform Epic.
Last month, lenders who hold a 60% stake in Great Learning appointed risk advisory firm Kroll to protect the company’s assets, particularly in the event of a management buyout.
Additionally, Byju’s is also in legal tussle with Davidson Kempner, a US-based investment firm that committed about $250 million in structured instruments linked to future cash flows from Byju’s largest asset, Aakash Educational Services. However, a technical default on the loan prompted the US-based investor to seek control of Aakash, and withhold a significant $150 million of the total amount.
Byju’s is currently in discussions with Ranjan Pai, one of the company’s earliest investors, to raise funds for repaying the debt to Davidson Kempner, according to sources aware of the matter. He is considering an investment of $250-300 million with an initial band-aid infusion of $170 million.
The company had also roped in former SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar and former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai in an advisory capacity to help the troubled edtech navigate the crisis.